Election result certifications delayed in Crawford County

BUCYRUS - The official results of all the Nov. 7 elections in Crawford County will not be released until Wednesday.

The official tallies were originally to be announced Tuesday, according to Ruth Leuthold, director of the Crawford County Board of Elections, but the results of all elections will be announced at the same time, employees of the board of elections have decided. They said they hope to have the ballots all counted and certified by 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The board said the delay was caused by a high number of provisional and absentee ballots — every ballot must be looked over, certified and counted.

Workers said they also must look over every write-in ballot again to ensure the name is counted properly.

Unofficial results released Nov. 7 indicate at least three of the elections were close.

Incumbent Bucyrus City Council President Garnet "Sis" Love seemed to overcome a strong challenge by Kurt Fankhauser to retain her seat, winning 1,117 votes to 1,094, a difference of only 23 votes.

Fankhauser later vowed to pay to have the votes counted again if the official results still showing him losing.

In the race for the city’s third at-large council seat, incumbent Dan Wirebaugh was leading challenger Jeff Norman by just 10 votes: 898 to 888.